7 Steps to Creating a Transformational Experience for Athletes

Hi Coach,

Today, we’re diving into some practical steps to creating a transformative sport experience for athletes.

I hope these newsletters serve you on your coaching journey!

Best,

Luke Gromer, RYG Athletics | A Provider of NIKE Sports Camps

A coaching colleague reached out to me the other day for some advice.

He’s taking over a couple middle school basketball teams this season, and he asked for thoughts on how he could be a transformational leader and create a transformational experience for his athletes.

What a great question.

It's the kind of question that sits at the heart of transformational leadership—moving beyond the X's and O's to intentionally build a life-changing experience for athletes.

Just imagine if every coach in our country asked that question before their season started?

A lot more lives would be positively impacted through sport.

I thought about his question for a bit, then sent him an audio message with the following recommendations:

Can you articulate why you coach?

Can you articulate why this program/team exists?

What are the outcomes we’re aiming for here?

Winning can be part of it, but it shouldn’t be all of it.

Reflect on it and write it down.

These are coach-standards that you’re committing to uphold at all times with very few exceptions.

I’ve used different ones with different teams, but I usually land on a combination of 2-3 of the following depending on the age and stage:

What do you want your team/program to be known for?

Choose 2-4 words or phrases.

Here are some core value/motto examples that I’ve used with teams:

You can determine these as a coach/staff and share with your players, or you can facilitate a conversation where the players help determine them.

Both methods can be effective. The key is to have them help co-create what these values/standards look like in behaviors in the next step.

To kickoff your season, before you practice on the field or court, hold a team meeting to lay the foundation for your culture.

The first step in this meeting should be to ask the question I shared in last week’s newsletter (I recommend reading last week’s newsletter for tips on how to ask this question and elicit meaningful answers from your team):

“What do you as players need from us as coaches to be successful this season?”

After you’ve concluded that discussion and committed as coaches to doing those things, tell them you’re now going to share with them what you as coaches need from them as players this season.

Then, create or share your non-negotiables.

Have them talk in small groups of 2-3 players, discussing what each of your non-negotiables means.

Clarify for them anything they miss or are confused on.

Clearly articulate how you will enforce these non-negotiables.

For example, if you come to practice without your practice jersey, you cannot practice. If you use profanity in games or practices, you’re removed from the game or asked to sit out of practice.

We obviously must follow through on these if they are truly to be non-negotiables.

After you finish sharing your non-negotiables, share or create your core values with the team.

Pose this question and have them discuss it:

“What do we want to be known for as a team?”

From that, either select words or phrases to be your values, or take the ideas they share and group them into your existing core values.

Ask additional questions about what X value looks like in practice, in games, and in the classroom (if applicable to your context).

Go through each core value or motto as a team.

Conclude by emphasizing that these are the standards and expectations for being a part of this team.

To recap this meeting:

Even as high as the college level, I believe every coach would be well served to hold a parent meeting.

In that parent meeting, share your purpose as a coach and as a team/club/program.

Share your non-negotiables and explain your reasoning behind them.

Share the natural consequences for athletes for failing to meet these standards.

Share your team values/mottos. Show them what their athletes said in response to the questions you posed in the team meeting.

Ask for parents’ help in ensuring that we create an experience that is about more than just winning and losing games.

Tell them how valuable they are in this process and highlight some areas where they can support their athletes and thus the team, e.g., sleep, nutrition, etc.

Also, make sure to be clear and transparent about how playing time is determined on your team (this is very age, stage, and context dependent).

Clearly share with parents the process for communicating with you about concerns or issues.

During your season, meet at least every other month with each player individually for a 5-minute 1-on-1 meeting.

I recommend doing this before or after practice in a public, visible location.

In the meetings, connect with the player first, ask them about non-sport things.

In my 1-on-1 meetings, I started them by telling each player they had to tell me about one thing going on in their life that had nothing to do with basketball.

Then have a conversation with them about their experience on the team and their current role.

Ask them questions and listen. Try to get them to do more of the talking than you.

Repeat back to them what you heard them say to clarify anything.

Share your perspective on things and ask them to repeat back to you what they heard (they often will completely miss our message).

Make sure to celebrate where they’re succeeding and be clear on where they need to grow. Athletes want the honesty.

First off, if you don’t uphold your non-negotiables and team standards, how can you expect your athletes to do so?

Don’t just talk the talk, walk the walk.

Model the values and standards you want your athletes to develop.

Then, reinforce and celebrate the standards consistently.

At the end of each practice or game, spend a couple minutes giving verbal shoutouts for where someone lived out a value/standard.

These should be done from coach-player and player-player.

Two other things I did with teams to reinforce our culture was 1) giving out a cultural artifact (we gave out an empty gas tank the year our motto was “all out”), and 2) sending out a shoutout form to our players’ teachers (we asked them to fill it out when a player was living out one of our standards in their classroom).

We’d give out the gas tank at the end of games or a week of practice, and we’d always make sure to celebrate classroom shoutouts at the end of practice in front of the whole team.

What gets celebrated gets repeated!

—

There’s obviously more that coaches can do to create transformative sport experiences for athletes, but the above is a great start for any coach, and it can be age-appropriately applied to any level.

I’d also be remiss if I pretended these were all my ideas or strategies. Almost all of them were ideas and strategies I picked up from great books like InSideOut Coaching, or great people like J.P. Nerbun, Tyler Coston, or others at PGC Basketball.

There are lots of great transformational leaders and coaches out there that are worth studying and stealing from.

But, the big gap for most coaches is the gap between knowing and doing.

Take an idea and implement it!

A thought on how this could apply in your coaching or leadership context…

Thanks for reading, I hope this serves you on your journey.

To your growth,

Luke Gromer, RYG Athletics | A Provider of NIKE Sports Camps

P.S. Click on the poll below to give us some feedback on the newsletter. Feel free to leave a comment on the next page or hit reply to this email with thoughts.

P.P.S. If you’re interested in becoming one of our NIKE Sports Camp directors, reply “NIKE” to this email and we’ll share the next step! You can see testimonials from over 100 athletes that attended our NIKE Sports Camps last summer.